


Meeting in the Woods

by Ryn_Holt



Series: Lume the Wizard [1]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: AU, Cannon for the most part, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Merlin POV, Merlin and apprentice, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27169945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryn_Holt/pseuds/Ryn_Holt
Summary: Merlin is out in the magical woods of Camelot and comes across another magic user
Series: Lume the Wizard [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983193
Kudos: 4





	Meeting in the Woods

Merlin did not often come to the magic forest alone. While walking through the forest was invigorating, it bore the reminder of what he had to leave behind when he joined Arthur’s side. Things he could never return to.

He had been collecting moon shade flowers, when he felt the magical energy. It was different than the rest of the magic in the forest. It came from something human or humanoid.

There wasn’t any magic residue from spell casting but just that happened to radiate from a natural spell caster. It was thin the type of magic that wasn’t used to being shaped. If Merlin’s magic was soil, ready to molded and put to use, then this was sand. Useful but it had a tendency to run through your fingers.

He followed the new magic, stopping when he caught sight of a figure. He moved himself to hide among the trees and watched.

The figure was flittering around, trying to catch something it seemed. Their hair was thick and it hid their face from all angels expect from straight on. They had a tendency to crouch and stalk on all fours growling slightly when they couldn’t catch their quarry.

They looked quite disheveled sticks in their hair, dirt streaked clothes and hands but they seemed not to care about it at all. They seemed content in what they were doing. For a moment he was sure that it was a fay creature of some type. A dirt stained hand shoved some hair behind an ear, to reveal a perfect curled ear. Not a point in sight.

The slapped their hands together and cackled pleased with their catch. They turned towards Merlin and stood up for the first time since he was watching them.

His eyes widened when he caught a full look of their face. It was human and from what Merlin could tell a little girl as well.

She was short and had a fullness to her face that spoke to youth. He guessed that she couldn’t be more than thirteen years old, if even that. She looked a wild beast, and she reminded him of the druids of past times, old magic causing nature to naturally bend to their will. She even had patches of moss growing on her clothes, grass growing taller where she stood.

She pulled out a bottle that contained what Merlin now recognized as was fire beetles. Bright red and orange beetles crawled around the bottle glowing faintly.

He couldn’t leave her out here. Not for sentimental reasons, Merlin rarely ever had feelings of sentiment it just wasn’t his nature anymore. It was a practicality, she was powerful, she was young and she could cause problems if left unchecked for longer. If properly trained, she could become a force of good, for all of humankind.

He stepped out of his hiding spot and stood parallel to girl.

Her head snapped upward like a dear, her eyes grew wide and she turned and started to run without a second thought. Merlin could feel her magic begging to be used to help her escape but her panic was too much to even hear it. It was something that you had to train yourself when you were a magic caster, magic first, feelings second.

With ease he set up a wall to stop her. She ran into it headfirst unable to sense it. He sighed, not at guilt of hurting but how little she used her magic. She had so much power at her fingertips and couldn’t access most of it. It was a tremendous waste. She spun back toward him, down on all fours like an animal.

He stepped forward and she hissed, so he took a step back. His plan had been to pick her up and take her back to Camelot, but that plan was already beginning to fray. What if she couldn’t even speak, what if she was just feral? He couldn’t have Arthur seeing a feral magic user running around the castle, child or not. 

“Can you talk?” He asked. Something sharp glinted in her eyes and she put her weight on her feet freeing her hands, palms facing him as if she was readying a spell.

“Fuck you.” Ah, it had been indignation. Her words had a growl to them and a foreign accent that Merlin wasn’t sure he could place. What if she had been raised by animals? It was possible that the forrest recognized her magic and like called to like. He thought of the Roman brothers and winced. Even they had been found by a sheep herder.

Vines and various plants were now growing slowly toward him. It would take a single stamp of his staff and it would stop but he kept it still. 

Maybe tact was the best option in this case. “What are you doing out here alone child?”

“Why do you care? Just leave me the hell alone, I’m not doing anything.” Her hands had moved gripping the strap of her her little satchel now, and worry etched into her face. She was looking less wild as more time passed. Merlin was pleased by this or as pleased as he ever was. If he said the right words he could get her follow her out of the forest.

“You are wandering around in a magical very dangerous alone. You are a child. It’s not a matter of you doing anything wrong but of you getting hurt.” He stayed very stern using all of his years of child rearing to use just the right tone to get his point that she was a child and he was an adult. It had worked well on all of his students before.

“I’m not alone.” The wince that followed was so powerful you could see the aftershocks throughout her body. Merlin took this as a lie, or something she couldn’t possibly prove, or something that wouldn’t help her case.

“Well, where are they then? Maybe I can talk to them?” He made as clear as possible that he was not just going to let her say that and he would drop it.

Worry was replaced with some mix of emotions he couldn’t name, she looked close to tears now. “Just leave me alone.” She pleaded. “Please.”

He felt himself soften, just slightly. She looked her younger now much more like a human child who had gotten over her head. She was genuinely scared of him terrified of what he could do to her. She had no reason to trust him in the slightest. 

“I can’t leave you alone here and the fact that you tried to run is highly suspicious.” He felt his resolve strengthen. He couldn’t leave her out here, what would happen if Merlin’s knights were the next ones to come across her? What would that mean for her and them?

“You’re wearing armor.” Her voice was quiet and softer now, gone was the malice and anger from before. “You’re going to try and hurt me.”

He had forgotten about his armor entirely. He didn’t interact with other magic users well except Douxie and he had know who Merlin was right away. Too late but maybe still worth something he casted a spell that had him change his clothes. His armor was now on a stand somewhere in his quarters. He know wore a a simple blue robe like he did in his younger years.

He leaned forward and held out a hand. “I’m a mage like you,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you.” If it was anyone but Merlin, they would have softened their voice, maybe crouch down a little, the very extra cuddly types would have smiled. Merlin just stayed his ever stern self. This was about as cuddly as he got.

She glanced to his hand to his face to sightly behind her. He could see she her shift away from his hand just a minuscule amount. Irritation was starting to creep in. This was taking too long for his taste. She was a child and he was much too old to be playing these kind of games. Arthur and Morgana never gave him this kind of trouble, Douxie caused problems but in a a way that wasn’t malicious in any way. 

Finally she spoke. “I’m not going with you. My family is here and I’m not leaving them.”

Merlin stood back up and sighed. It was time to use more, active measures it seemed. Lying was one of the many things that actively annoyed him. He casted a simple truth spell on her.

Her eyes widened as she felt the energy hit her. There was panic but also anger in her eyes and her hands curled into fists.

“Tell me about your family then.” He said brushing the dirt off his robe, waiting for her to speak.

“They left me alone in the forest.” She slapped a hand over her mouth this time. The anger was gone now panic being the only thing her face. He gave her a stern look, as if he was getting ready to scold her for lying. “But,” he could see her fighting the spell, the muscles in her arms were shaking trying to keep her hand in place her magic was starting to dim as well draining from the spell. It was an added bonus, “the,” Merlin waited patiently knowing the longer she struggled the quicker the rest of the information could come, “trolls saved me. Humans left me to die but they saved me. I am not alone, they are my family.” Fatigue was visible on her face and she looked as if she wanted nothing more than to crawl and sleep for a few years. Fighting spells was near impossible for humans, mages could do it but at a tremendous cost of their energy. She took in a few long breaths, swaying slightly on her feet, before looking back to Merlin her eyes lit with righteous anger. “And if you try and hurt them,” she said, fury burning at her palms, “I’ll kill you.”

Trolls.

That complicated things greatly. It also explained so many things about her. Now he could see the troll influence in almost everything she did. It explained the accent, the moss, the body language, the lack of spell knowledge. It also spoke to her dislike of the armor, if she had been living with them she would share their hate of Arthur and what he had done. She looked ready to make good on her threat so they must have treated her well. Which was a surprise in-itself, while Merlin knew that not all Trolls like human flesh he also knew that almost all of them distrusted humans. The very idea that they would have taken in a human was unheard of. He brushed off away the thoughts of confusion as again like calling to like. Both had magical abilities, both were hunted. Parental instinct might have played a part as well. He was curious to know how old she was when she was taken in. Depending on how long it had been, she most likely wouldn’t want to leave the only home she’d known.

But he was sure he had a way to get her to leave. “And do they teach you magic?” He asked. She cocked her head slightly at the question.

“Some, yes.”

“And they treat you well?”

She dimed slightly and she nodded. “Better than humans ever have.” This was going to be harder than he thought but he still had an ace.

“I see,” he said “What is your name little mage?” He asked.

She tried to fight the truth spell again but she relaxed when she realized it was more trouble than it was worth. “Lume.”

Not a human or a troll name really. He might have to give her a different one later.

“Well Lume, I am Merlin and I would like to take you on as my apprentice.” She blinked a few times, looking to the ground and then looked back to him.

“What does that mean?” She asked.

“Well an apprentice is a sort of,” Merlin started not surprised she wasn’t familiar with the word if she had been raised by trolls.

“I know the word means!” She snapped. “What would it mean for me?”

Oh that was much simpler to explain.

“You would come live with me, and I would train you to be a master wizard.” He thought about Douxie. Things would probably had gone much smoother if he had been here with Merlin, someone who would explain what it would be like first hand. Douxie was much better getting people to trust him. Merlin suspected it came from his checkered past.

“Its illegal,” she said. So she had some first hand experience with Arthur and his knights.

“Not for me and those who learn under me.”

She thought on it for a moment. She looked down at her bag and then shifted to the ground in front of her. It was clear she was giving it a fair amount of thought. She nodded to herself before addressing him.

“No,” she said. And then she added. “Thank you.”

Merlin was not expecting to be denied and he did not like it one bit. His more prideful side was telling him to pick her up and tell her she didn’t have a choice in the matter. But his calm logical side told him that she did take the offer seriously and part of her wanted the training he had to offer. He had to just tip the scales in his favor.

He mulled over how he was going to phrase what he was going to say next.

“You’re not a Troll you know,” he said finally.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said defensively. He had hit a cord with somewhere in her. Something knew she couldn’t change no matter how much she wanted to.

“You can only deny your true nature for so long.” He said motioning to the plants that were still making their way to his feet. “The Trolls may care for you but they can’t help you grow to your full potential. If you really want to help them, you might need to leave them.”

She didn’t say anything but he could sense the a flicker of guilt across her features.

Then he taught her a simple spell. She learned it perfectly with in a few minutes. “If you change your mind, use this spell and I’ll come get you.”

After he was sure she could do the spell, he flicked his hand and the wall disappeared. She sprinted away with full speed and he watched her depart and stayed in his spot for a few moments. He dragged his hand over his face and felt his full age weigh on his shoulders for just a few moments.


End file.
